Creating Custom Topographic Maps for your Hand Held GPS Unit - Part 5

This is Part 5 of a multi-part series on creating custom topographic maps for your hand held mapping GPS unit. For previous posts click one of the following:
Creating Custom Topographic Maps for your Hand Held GPS Unit - Part 1
Creating Custom Topographic Maps for your Hand Held GPS Unit - Part 2
Creating Custom Topographic Maps for your Hand Held GPS Unit - Part 3
Creating Custom Topographic Maps for your Hand Held GPS Unit - Part 4

---

Creating Custom Topographic Maps
for your Hand Held GPS Unit - Part 5

Making your map work with Garmin MapSource

Well. I think we have come quite a long way. Let me just do a quick recap of what has happened so far:

1. Obtained the necessary FREE software.
2. Located and downloaded the map data that we needed.
3. Processed the map data. (For topography only)
4. Created the map.

In this post we will complete the following:

1. Convert the map into a Garmin Compatible format.
2. Load our converted map file into MapSource
3. Use MapSource to upload our map to our GPS Unit

Continue reading after the jump to complete your custom map for your hand held GPS unit!

In my last mapping post ( Part 4 ) we assembled all of the pieces of the map to produce a .mp file in GPSMapEdit. Now we need to modify that .mp file and process it to make it compatible with Garmin's MapSource.

This is our finished map from earlier.

We need to have our map opened in GPSMapEdit (as pictured above) to continue.

Once the map has loaded go to File --> Map Properties to access the map properties dialog box. The first tab on the Map Properties dialog should be the Header tab. Here we need to make sure that the Type set: is set to Garmin.

Next we need to assign the map an eight digit decimal ID. You can assign any eight digit code that you would like, but you cannot duplicate the code with another map. Conveniently, your topographic data comes in zip files that have an eight digit file name. (ex. 02167919.zip) I typically pick one of these file names as the ID value. For this map, I will assign an ID of 02167919.

**Note: This ID value is also going to be used as the name of the .IMG file when we export it out of GPSMapEdit so write it down somewhere!!

Our final task on this dialog box is to fill in the Displayable name of map field. Name the map whatever you would like. I'm going to fill in my Name field with Cranberry Wilderness Topographic Map. You can also fill in the Copyright information if you would like. I typically just put my name and the year in this field. That completes the entries for this step. Press the Apply button to save your changes.

 IMPORTANT: Before you go on to the next step, go to the cGpsMapper tab. Make sure that Map is transparent is set to Y - Transparent map without background object. After setting this value properly press the OK button to save and exit the Map Properties dialog.

Save your map before going on to the next step. (File --> Save Map)

Next we are going to export the map using cGPSMapper.exe. Go to File --> Export --> Garmin IMG/ cgpsmapper.exe. This will bring up the Save As dialog box. Make sure to name your file the same eight digit code as you assigned it for the ID number. (ex. 02167919.img for the File Name) and check that the Save As Type is set to Garmin MapSource map (*.img). Once you have verified these settings, go ahead and press the Save button.

After you press Save, the Export to cgpsmapper.exe dialog box appears. Here you must navigate to the cgpsmapper.exe file. When I installed cgpsmapper I installed it in a folder on my C Drive. For me the path to the .exe file is C:\cgpsmapperFree\cgpsmapper.exe. Click on the ... button next to the Path field to use the browser and locate your copy of cgpsmapper.exe.

After selecting the .exe path, press the Run button. Depending on the speed of your system and the size of your map, this process may take a while. (My PC is a 3.2Ghz i5 Quad Core with 4GB of RAM and it took over 17 minutes to export. On my old 2.0Ghz AMD Athlon system I'd let this process run overnight.) After the export has competed click the OK button. You can now exit from GPSMapEdit.

Next we need to create a new directory in the Garmin MapSource directory. This should be located at C:\Garmin. Navigate to the Garmin directory and create a sub-directory named "Custom". Now copy your exported .img file into this directory.

---

We are now ready to use MapSetToolkit to import the .img file into MapSource. Locate MapSetToolkit and start the program.

The MapSetToolkit interface.

First, we need to select which .img file we are going to import. Select the Select IMG button. This brings up a Browse for Folder dialog box. Select your C:\Garmin\Custom folder. All of your .img files in the Custom folder should now be listed in the Source IMG files box. Select the map that you want to add to MapSource and click the Add button.(Note: you can create one mapset with multiple .img files. This may be necessary if you need to break up your map into multiple files. You may have to do this because the area you are trying to map might be too big for GPSMapEdit to handle.)

The next step is to fill out the Create MAPSET section. In the Mapset directory field click on the ... button and navigate to the Custom directory that you created earlier. After you select it the Mapset Directory should read C:\garmin\custom. 

For the Mapset name field give the set a name. This is what will appear in the MapSource drop-down menu. For my map, I'll call it Cranberry Wilderness Topo.

Next assign the map a Family ID number. This can be any number between 1 and 65535, but it must be unique to the map. Look under the Mapset Installed section for your used Family ID (FID) numbers. In this case, I'll use 501.

The rest of the fields can be left at their default values. You can enter information into the Copyright info field if you wish, but this is only displayed in MapSource if you look at the map set's properties. The TYP files field is used if you have created custom line types for Garmin. We have not, so leave this field blank.

In the cgpsmapper/cpreview folder field click on the ... button. Like we did with GPSMapEdit when exporting to the .img file, navigate to the folder that cgpsmapper is installed in. Again, on my system this is C:\cgpsmapperFree\ . Select this directory and click OK.

Finally, make sure that under the Options section in the lower right hand corner of the main dialog box that there is a check mark next to Install in Mapsource. When you are done filling in all of the fields your dialog box should look similar to the following:

You are now ready to add your map to MapSource!

Click the Start button. Once MapsetToolkit finishes a box will appear that says Convert Completed. Click OK and check under the Mapset Installed section to see that your map is installed and that its Family ID has been entered correctly.

And that's it! Now you can open up Garmin MapSource and select your new map and load it into your GPS unit!

Congratulations!

I hope this blog series has helped you make better use of your handheld mapping GPS unit. Thanks for reading. If you find any mistakes or have any questions please leave a comment and I will try to respond as soon as possible. Thanks again!

~Occasional Hyker